Monthly Archives: September 2012

My first novel, Love Lies Bleeding, will be released in the spring. As a little taste, here is a little glimpse into my main character, Frank Conley, a member of the New York State Police, and a small excerpt. Story It was a story that had haunted Ithaca for decades. Libbie Morgan disappeared on a…

Hey everybody! Next week is Musa Publishing’s first anniversary. Musa is publishing my first novel, Love Lies Bleeding, sometime in the spring. In honor of this, they’re hosting a blog hop. For each comment on all the participating blogs, you’ll be entered to win a Kindle Fire (for example, if you comment on ten blogs,…

I’d love to tell stories here about my German great grandma preparing all sorts of delicious Teutonic dishes with me at her side, helping her, but the truth is, she died before I was born. The one story I know about her cooking is that she used the same grease to make EVERYTHING. Yes, you…

Ever had one of those moments that just took your breath away? Even more so because it may never have happened in the first place but for one tiny blip in the cosmic universe? Genealogy is a funny thing. You can beat your head into the desk for months…even years before finding a tiny sledgehammer…

These are my dad’s parents on their wedding day. April 19, 1919. They were married in New Holstein, Wisconsin, at my grandma Mariele’s parents’ home. Isn’t her jacket the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen? The long row of buttons down the bottom, the roses in the lapel, and the jaunty hat all combine to…

I always tell people, “It’s a new place if I haven’t seen it yet!” No one understands my love of old places or the way I view them. When I head out on one of my genealogy trips, it doesn’t matter where I’m going. I try imagining it as it used to be, even if…

Recently, on a visit to the thrift store, I found a copy of this book, and decided to educate myself on India in general, but specifically on the partitioning of it. In the last 20 years or so, working as a technical writer, I’ve made plenty of Indian friends, and become far more interested in…

So the weather is starting to cool off (for some of us anyway). This is a perfect time to post a recipe for my favorite soup ever. During deep winter weekend afternoons, I cook up a pot of this, and we use it to stay warm after shoveling through a foot of snow out front….